Are the leaves changing colour really worth sitting in hours of traffic to see? When I think 3 day weekend, I can't say "go watch a tree" has ever featured highly on my list of things I want to do. In fact I think it's ranked just below "lose a testicle".

Earguy:I've never been up there for "leaf season" before, so I'm heading up NEXT week to stay at a friend's cabin. no way I'd go on Columbus day weekend.

They might be about done by then. Around these parts with the weird spring we had, some of the trees are already done, others haven't started to change. It's not the best year for the full show, but even in a bad year it's worth a drive in the country at this time of year!

Little late... Even down here in southern Ohio and Northern KY the leaves are already changing fast.

/Hard freeze tonight, dunno if that will affect it much as I am told the the change is dependent on sunlight hours, not temperature... but I heard a hard freeze causes quicker cellular disruption which generally makes the leaves turn brown very fast.. with fewer reds.

sno man:Earguy: I've never been up there for "leaf season" before, so I'm heading up NEXT week to stay at a friend's cabin. no way I'd go on Columbus day weekend.

They might be about done by then. Around these parts with the weird spring we had, some of the trees are already done, others haven't started to change. It's not the best year for the full show, but even in a bad year it's worth a drive in the country at this time of year!

Actually, we're going to southern Vermont. Right now it's ramping up there, in one week we'll either hit peak or miss it by only a day or two. If it's not quite peak, we just head to slightly higher elevations. We'll just have a few days off to be tourists.

Can someone explain what's so special about New Hampshire this time of year... especially this weekend? I totally get being into the changing colors of the trees and all, but isn't pretty much everything from Western Pennsylvania/Carolinas all the way up to Maine pretty well forrested? Other than big cities? Why New Hampshire specifically?

jimmyego:Are the leaves changing colour really worth sitting in hours of traffic to see? When I think 3 day weekend, I can't say "go watch a tree" has ever featured highly on my list of things I want to do. In fact I think it's ranked just below "lose a testicle".

It's more a matter of a nice weekend in the country. I live on the Jersey Shore and we did the Kancamagus Highway about 10 years ago. Spent the weekend at this adorable bed & breakfast, found an awesome cafe, and did some antiquing. Then saw the Man in the Mountain (who has since fallen off) and saw a moose. It was just a fun getaway.

Massholes on Everett Turnpike who don't know about Exit 11. It opens up to three lanes just before, shuts down to 2 just after, then the oncoming traffic has to merge, all in about 0.2 miles, they think the highway is getting larger, so they spread out, then it chokes up because it's a merge and a merge, it's more bad civic planning than it is the peepers.

Really I had no problems until the choke up at exit 11. It caused a 10 minute slowdown (The horror) so my 25mi/30min commute took 40 minutes (the horror).

Come on up, pay our stupid rooms and meals tax, buy some liquor from the state liquor store, make purchases at the new outlet mall. Whatever.

downstairs:Can someone explain what's so special about New Hampshire this time of year... especially this weekend? I totally get being into the changing colors of the trees and all, but isn't pretty much everything from Western Pennsylvania/Carolinas all the way up to Maine pretty well forrested? Other than big cities? Why New Hampshire specifically?

For all the residents in CT, NY, and to some extend RI, the best place to see large rolling forests of beautiful reds, oranges and yellows in NH.

The aforementioned states are either too urban or don't have the expanses of forest.

These people pick NH because it is still commercialized enough in the southern portions for the tourists to not feel like they are going to die from exposure.

Plenty of people go to VT or the Berkshires... But those people are of a different ilk.

I get the idea. I used to live in a part of town that was lovely in fall. But now all I have to do to see falling leaves is look outside. My new back yard is buried in them. Now that I own, a leafy yard is just one that I have to rake now.

Mayhem of the Black Underclass:Massholes on Everett Turnpike who don't know about Exit 11. It opens up to three lanes just before, shuts down to 2 just after, then the oncoming traffic has to merge, all in about 0.2 miles, they think the highway is getting larger, so they spread out, then it chokes up because it's a merge and a merge, it's more bad civic planning than it is the peepers.

Really I had no problems until the choke up at exit 11. It caused a 10 minute slowdown (The horror) so my 25mi/30min commute took 40 minutes (the horror).

Come on up, pay our stupid rooms and meals tax, buy some liquor from the state liquor store, make purchases at the new outlet mall. Whatever.

Well on the bright side for my friend (an a.m. in one of the stores), all those backed up people are getting off at exit 10 to go to the Merrimack Premium Outlets. Apparently it's busy as fark there right now.

Holy cow, there is an advertisement to see the leaves changing in Oklahoma on the page. I live there and the few trees left in the sate already lost their leaves due to the drought or one of the many brush fires.

jimmyego:Are the leaves changing colour really worth sitting in hours of traffic to see? When I think 3 day weekend, I can't say "go watch a tree" has ever featured highly on my list of things I want to do. In fact I think it's ranked just below "lose a testicle".

Hell, If'n ya ride a motorcycle around the White Mountains to view these leafs, "losing a testicle" is a possibility. But riding for ANY good reason is reason enuf. You're not viewing a leaf, nor a tree, you're viewing nature's grand display. If that doesn't do it for ya, keep drinkin', I'll mug ya later.

As someone who commutes on foot and drives only when absolutely necessary, I really don't understand why people who drive to work and sit in traffic Every Day find a traffic-laden weekend activity like this appealing.

I was born in Maine and moved away as an infant. Not until I was forty years old did I return to discover the locals considered me one of their own."Born a Maineuh, always a Maineuh."Then they shared their stories about how they hate all the New Yorkers that come up every summer and Fall.

vodka:Are these "Leafers" of a criminal element or something? Gangs? Bringing down local property values and stealing from your economy? Help me understand why I should hate them.

There's a reason W pronounced "terrorists" like "tourist." Ridiculous traffic to do anything, everywhere you want to go is overcrowded, and just a general feeling that there'll be no peace and quiet till they're gone.

I saw most of them yesterday, when I was driving Rte 3 south from ManchVegas to Nausea. Miles upon miles of bumper to bumper traffic. To make things worse, there's a bridge under construction right by the Rte 3/293/101 conjunction, where it was narrowed down to 1 lane. I am so not going north or anywhere else for that matter this weekend. fark the leefers. Come monday, the reverse will be in effect, southbound will be impacted like Elvis' colon.

ZackDanger:For all the residents in CT, NY, and to some extend RI, the best place to see large rolling forests of beautiful reds, oranges and yellows in NH.

The aforementioned states are either too urban or don't have the expanses of forest.

These people pick NH because it is still commercialized enough in the southern portions for the tourists to not feel like they are going to die from exposure.

You're trolling, right? You did not just include the 2nd largest producer of maple syrup in the US and the state whose area 1/4 HARDWOOD FOREST that is primarily maple in that "too urban or expanses of forest."

NH has marketed itself well. Nothing more, nothing less.

/Save your money and go next year. Drought is making the vistas kinda crap.

The first frosts haven't hit yet, so the summer plants are enormous and brightly coloured. They seem to have thrived during the drought conditions in early summer, and now that we have had some rain, they are exceptional and the grass has recovered enough to be considered good although not exceptional.

I like those forest floor plants with the mixed colours and frilly leaves--they are varied and attractive and they work well with maples turning bright yellow, red, sort of vaguely magenta, wine, etc.

New England colours are not as bright as they are further North where the climate is sharper and mave suffer from warming and late Fall humidity, but we're just about at the cutting edge of Fall foliage in Eastern Canada, so as the climate warms we get the best of both worlds in the Fall--the frosts hold off, the weather is warmer and sometimes sunny and we get to keep our summer exotics into the season of the Fall glories, with a greener background of lawn and conifer.

It's an ill wind that blows nobody well. At least we get some compensation for drought, heat wave, massive storms, etc., not to mention the growing threat to the Winter ice-skating on the Rideau Canal.

Personally I like the shorter winters and prolongued periods of Spring and Fall weather. If only the Summers weren't getting more prone to heat waves and other extreme weather events like the tornado-like winds that tore a logo off of a downtown building.

You win some, you lose some. The millions saved on snow-clearing will go to cleaning up after floods and other weather events that tend to be less scheduled than seasonal snow.